Discovery of Gold in Australia

Australia 1851 was notable for the extension
of representative Government to all the Australian colonies
and for the first gold-field at Bathurst.

Early Rumours of Gold: Specimens had been found by
convicts; Count Strzelecki, Mr Clarke and Sir R. Murchinson
expressed their belief that gold existed in Australia.

Edward Hargraves 1851 : Hargraves, a Bathurst
settler, returned from California, with a hunch about gold
fields in Autralia. He eventually discovered a gold-field on
Summerhill Creek, near the Macquarie river.

Government Gold Regulations :
Commissioners were appointed to superintend the gold fields
at Ophir, Braidwood and Maroo ;and thirty shillings per
month were charged for miner's license.

Gold In Victoria - In 1851 Gold was found in
Victoria by Esmond, at Clunes ; also (through the reward
offered by the Gold Discovery Committee), on the Plenty
Ranges and Anderson's Creek.

Gold in Ballarat - In 1851 Ballarat was opened
up by the prospectors from Clunes and Buninyong; a miner
having dug below the claybeds found pockets of gold and
Ballarat became the richest field in the world.

Gold at Mount Alexander - 1852 Sandhurst on
the Bendigo Creek, attracted great number pf men ;
Melbourne and Geelong were almost deserted.